Norway’s domestic security agency has warned about the possibility of a terror attack from rightwing extremists “in the coming year”. In a statement, the PST said its heightened assessment stemmed from the fact that several Norwegian rightwing extremists had recently expressed support for the perpetrators behind attacks in New Zealand, the US and the failed attack in the Norwegian capital Oslo last month.

On 10 August, Philip Manshaus allegedly stormed an Oslo mosque with guns before being overpowered. Several shots were fired and one person was slightly injured, but the suspect was held down by others in the mosque. The suspect has also been linked to the death of his stepsister.

The attack is believed to have been inspired by similar incidents this year in New Zealand and the US. In Christchurch, 51 people were killed in a mass shooting at two mosques on 15 March, while in El Paso, Texas, a gunman left at least 22 dead on 3 August.

The PST agency said “meeting places for Muslims and non-western immigrants”, political parties or persons, Jews and LGBT communities were “symbolic targets”.

The service updated its assessment hours after it said a Norwegian citizen in his 20s had been arrested for “terrorist association” on Thursday afternoon. It was not known whether that case was linked to the heightened assessment.(TheGuardian)…[+]

A leading secular politician in Turkey has been sentenced to nearly 10 years in jail for “terror propaganda and insults” against the Turkish state. Canan Kaftancioglu, 47, was convicted mainly over tweets which date back several years.

She has said the charges were politically motivated and remains free pending an appeal. She heads the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) in Istanbul, the country’s largest city. Kaftancioglu played a key in the CHP’s triumph in Istanbul’s mayoral election in June, defeating the governing AKP party.CHP’s Ekrem Imamoglu beat the AKP candidate in the re-run poll, delivering a stinging blow to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

On Friday, she was sentenced to nine years, eight months and 20 days in prison.

She was accused of “insulting” President Erdogan and the Turkish state in the posts, as well as “spreading terror propaganda”. The charges related to 2013 anti-government protests and the outlawed Kurdistan Worker’s Party (PKK). The hashtag #TurkiyeSeninleCananBaskan (Turkey Stands With You, Chief Canan) trended online during Kaftanciouglu’s trial in Istanbul.

Speaking shortly after the court’s verdict, Mr Imamoglu said: “There is no justice in this country. In Turkey, instead of listening to their conscience, judges look towards the palace (the President’s office).” He said Ms Kaftancioglu was sentenced “because of her success in İstanbul elections”.(BBC)…[+]

Complaints about the price of a pint are nothing new but an Australian journalist has more reason than most to gripe, after being charged more than £55,000 for a beer in a Manchester hotel. Peter Lalor, who is the chief cricket writer and beer editor of the Australian newspaper, was charged the exorbitant sum for a bottle of Deuchars IPA at the Malmaison hotel, after a day watching the Ashes cricket series at Old Trafford.

“I decided I wanted one beer on the way home and dropped in because I have mates staying there,” he told the Guardian. “When I paid, I didn’t have my glasses on and there was some issue with the machine so I had to put my details in twice. “I just had this weird feeling and I said, ‘How much did I just pay for that beer?’ The girl at the bar looked at the reeipt and said, ‘Oh my God!’ and was a bit reluctant to show me the bill.”

Upon seeing he had been charged A$99,983.64 (£55,262.96), Lalor said a hotel manager immediately admitted the mistake and promised to help him rectify it with his bank. He left, wrongly assuming the bank would never authorise such a large payment anyway.

“I woke up to an alarmed phone call from my wife, who had found a massive hole in my mortgage account,” said Lalor. “They can take the money out in a second but apparently it takes them up to 10 working days to put it back. I’m losing a fair whack of interest and as of this moment, I’m $99,000 out of pocket.(The Guardian)…[+]

Two men who groomed and abused hundreds of children at a campsite in Germany over a period of more than 20 years have been jailed by a judge who said she was “lost for words” at the severity of their crimes.

Victims’ families said they hoped the attackers would spend years behind bars. The nation’s judiciary, police, youth services and politicians came under fire during the 10-week trial for their slowness to act, despite suspicions about the men expressed by children and their parents years before. Herbert Reul, the interior minister for the state of North Rhine-Westphalia where the abuse took place, has conceded that authorities have “not been on the ball – but half-asleep” on tackling child abuse, and promised to ensure the issue was put at the top of the political agenda.

Andreas V, 56, and Mario S, 33, whose full names were not released in accordance with German law, will spend 13 and 12 years in prison respectively, followed by a period in preventive detention, a punishment reserved for the most serious of criminals because of the risk they pose to the public’s safety.

The men were accused of more than 450 incidents of abuse, most commonly rape, of 32 boys and girls, between 1998 and 2018. Their victims were aged between three and 14. Some of the children were holidaying at the camp in Lügde, close to Hamelin in northern Germany; others were visiting a girl who was being fostered by Andreas V, who was also raped by him and was in turn used to lure other children to his caravan.(The Guardian)…[+]

Three men have been given life sentences in connection with one of Pakistan’s most notorious “honour killing” cases. Named as Omar Khan, Sabeer and Saheer, they are related to three women killed after being filmed singing and clapping at a wedding in 2011.

Their bodies were never found. Two men they were with are still in hiding. The fates of another two women are unknown. The killings sparked a blood feud which left another four dead. Five other men were acquitted by the court in Besham, in north-western Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province. The exact details of what took place are not entirely clear.

A video emerged in 2011 which appeared to show a group of women – named as Bazeegha, Sereen Jan, Begum Jan and Amina – at a wedding, singing and clapping. A fifth woman – Shaheen, who was under 18 – is also thought to have been present.

It also showed a man dancing – although they were never in the same shot together. A second man is said to have been filming. It was enough, in the remote northern Kohistan district where matters of family honour are settled in blood, to warrant at least three of the women’s deaths.

According to local custom, male family members of a woman suspected of an out-of-wedlock liaison – even of a seemingly innocuous nature – should first kill the woman, and then go after the man. The family of the man would not oppose this action, correspondents say. It meant everyone in the video – which was seen as “breaching the honour” of the women’s family – was in danger.(BBC)…[+]

Five members of a California family who were celebrating a birthday are among the 34 people assumed dead in a fire on a scuba diving boat. Relatives said Michael Quitasol, his daughters Evan, Nicole and Angela Quitasol, and his wife, Fernisa Sison, were on the Conception.

Twenty-five bodies have been recovered from the wreck so far and authorities are working to identify them. The boat caught fire on Monday while passengers slept below decks.

On Tuesday the search for survivors was called off. Of the 39 people on board, just five – all crew – survived by jumping overboard. A sixth member of the crew is also thought to have been trapped below. The cause of the blaze is unknown but an investigation is under way. The Conception is currently underwater near Santa Cruz Island, about 90 miles (145km) west of Los Angeles.

Susana Solano Rosas said “with a broken heart” that her three daughters had died along with her ex-husband and his wife. “The authorities do not have much to say to us,” Mrs Rosas wrote. “Thank you to all of you for your support prayers and good wishes.” Her partner, Chris Rosas, told the Los Angeles Times that Evan was an emergency department nurse, Nicole was a bartender and Angela was a middle school science teacher. “They were outstanding girls. That’s about all I can tell you right now.” Mr Rosas said. The family was on the boat celebrating Mr Quitasol’s birthday, relatives said.(BBC)…[+]

Africans have come out to boycott South Africa after days of looting and violence targeting foreigners in which five people died. Nigerian singers and Zambia’s football team are among those in the boycott.

South Africa’s social development minister told the BBC the rioters feared losing their jobs to foreigners. The country has become a magnet for migrants from other parts of Africa. It has one of the continent’s biggest and most developed economies.

Nigerian Afrobeats star Burna Boy vowed to never go to South Africa again until the government “wakes up”. He tweeted that he himself had had his own “xenophobic experiences at the hands of South Africans ” in 2017.Another Nigerian singer, Tiwa Savage, announced on Twitter she was pulling out of a concert she had planned to perform at in South Africa in September, condemning “the barbaric butchering of my people”.

It is not clear whether any Nigerians have died in the violence but the singer later clarified that “my people” could be any African person. The Nigerian government has also boycotted the World Economic Forum meeting in Cape Town. Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo was originally expected to attend the regional meeting between business leaders and governments. And the country has issued a travel warning to its citizens, tweets Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari’s assistant.(BBC)…[+]

CARICOM- (PANCAP Coordinating Unit, CARICOM Secretariat): The Pan-Caribbean Partnership against HIV and AIDS (PANCAP), the mechanism that provides a structured and unified approach to the Caribbean’s response to the HIV epidemic, will convene the Second joint regional dialogue with parliamentarians, faith leaders, civil society leaders, national AIDS programme managers and youth leaders in Port-of-Spain, Republic of Trinidad and Tobago on 10 September 2019. The theme of the event is “Assessing progress towards ending AIDS”.

 According to Director of PANCAP, Dereck Springer, the Dialogue will provide an update on the implementation of recommendations that emanated from the first Regional Dialogue held in April 2018.  Stakeholders will also explore personal values and attitudes that may contribute to reinforcing differences or fostering an environment that supports diversity.

The Director further explained that the five stakeholder groups – Parliamentarians, Faith Leaders, Civil Society Leaders, National AIDS Programme Managers and Youth Leaders – would be involved in interactive sessions which will allow them to discuss and propose options on the way forward for each stakeholder group, including areas for collaboration with other stakeholder groups beyond the current Global Fund grant.

“Conscious that there remain challenges with differences among some stakeholder groups, the Regional Dialogue will provide a space to allow stakeholders to explore their personal values and divergent views, as well as the implicit biases that serve as barriers to communication with and acceptance of different groups,” stated the PANCAP Director.  He further highlighted that through group discussions stakeholders would clarify their values, identify the challenges and responses required to overcome the gaps in trust, diversity and social identity that currently exist among stakeholders.

The PANCAP Director emphasised that the Dialogue will seek to ascertain from stakeholder groups what is needed to develop positive attitudes to diverse social identities, such as men who have sex with men, transgender persons, sex workers, persons who use drugs, migrants and persons with disabilities…[+]

A mayor in the French alps has urged Emmanuel Macron to take action against “wackos” climbing Mont Blanc, after incidents including a British tourist abandoning a rowing machine on western Europe’s highest peak. Jean-Marc Peillex, mayor of Saint-Gervais, who for years has sounded the alarm against overcrowding on Mont Blanc, said a member of the British “Royal Commandos”, thought to mean the Royal Marines, hauled up the exercise machine for a stunt on Saturday.

But he did not have the strength to bring it back down and left it in an emergency hut situated at 4,362 metres (14,300 feet). The man gave his name as Disney, said Peillex in an open letter published on Sunday, adding “with a name like that, you’d think he thought he was at an amusement park”.

Also over the weekend, he said, a German tourist made the ascent with his dog, despite warnings not to do so from police brigades who patrol Mont Blanc during the busy summer season. He had promised he would leave his dog at a refuge before attempting the summit, said Peillex.

Instead, he left in the middle of the night for the summit with the dog, which survived but returned with bloodied paws, according to photos posted on Peillex’s Twitter account. The incidents over the weekend came after two Swiss climbers landed a small plane east of Mont Blanc’s summit in June and started hiking to the top.(TheGuardian)…[+]

Cancer now causes more deaths among the middle-aged in higher-income countries than cardiovascular disease, a study suggests. Globally, heart problems and stroke is the leading cause of death at this age.

But the researchers say people in rich nations are 2.5 times more likely to die of cancer than cardiovascular disease in their middle years. In poorer nations, the reverse is true – with cardiovascular disease three times more likely to claim the lives. The study, published in the Lancet, is drawn from a global research programme following the lives of thousands of people from across 21 countries. People from the UK are not involved.

Researchers led by a team from Canada’s McMaster University looked at the fate of 160,000 people enrolled in the programme, between 2005 and 2016. These people had an average age of 50 at the start. There were more than 11,000 deaths, with those in low-income countries nearly four times more likely to die than those in high-income countries.

In about 2,000 cases, the cause of death was unclear. Of the others, cardiovascular disease caused more than 40% in middle- and low-income countries but less than a quarter in high-income countries. The researchers say this could be because richer countries provide more medication and treat more people in hospital.

Jeremy Pearson, of the British Heart Foundation, said “huge progress” meant many people were surviving heart attacks and strokes but growing numbers were living with “disability and the debilitating after effects” of cardiovascular disease.(BBC)..[+]